Justine Allen's Blog, page 77
June 13, 2013
Reminder – Short Story give away!
Don’t forget! You can grab my short story “BIO.AUDIO.LOC” for free on Amazon this weekend. The three days start from 12a.m. on Friday 14th June Pacific Standard Time to Sunday 16th June 2013. That should be about 08:00 here in the UK!
Watch out for it this weekend, and I hope you enjoy it.
Filed under: Writing Tagged: fiction, Flash fiction, free, indie author, indie writing, Kindle, sci-fi, science fiction, self publishing, Short Story, writing
June 10, 2013
Book Review: The Success of Suexliegh
Here’s the first of my book reviews. I intend to start here, and continue them for future reads, at least for my favourite books. They won’t be of high critical acclaim, just a short couple of paragraphs of what I think!
I really enjoyed The Success of Suexliegh (Swoo-lee-a), by Zack Keller. The book is a very entertaining read, concerning Mr Suexliegh; his devoted butlers, Quincy and Quincy junior; his love interest, Verena Terena; his nemesis, Dingle; and his upper class party friends, the Scoundrels.
It was light-hearted from start to finish, with many unexpected twists and turns, and lots of laugh-out-loud moments. I found my self willing the spoilt and frivolous billionaire to success. It was a change to my usual choice of science fiction or thrillers. A great read, I’d recommend, whatever your genre of choice!
Filed under: Reading Tagged: book review, Humour, indie author, indie writing, Reading, writing, Zack Keller
June 8, 2013
Mid June Short Story Give Away
Following on from the great response to the recent giveaway of the short story “The Room”, I will be doing the same for a Flash Fiction short story I wrote, “BIO.AUDIO.LOC”, next weekend. This time, it will be available for three days from Friday 14th June, starting 12a.m. Pacific Standard Time, to Sunday 16th June. This will start around 8 a.m. on Friday here in the UK.
Before you grab it, let me explain where this short story came from. It was submitted in a 24h Flash Fiction challenge, in which the competition entrants where given the brief on one day for a deadline the next day. I’ve left it exactly as it was, as I think reworking it would be cheating! Although I didn’t win, I had tremendous fun writing it. Here is the brief; Title: BIO.AUDIO.LOC, Line: “Why don’t we try covering it in tin foil and see?”, Word count: 1000 maximum.
Enjoy!
Filed under: Writing Tagged: Flash fiction, free, indie author, indie writing, Kindle, sci-fi, science fiction, self publishing, Short Story, writing
June 4, 2013
Indie author tips & tricks: Converting your document to Kindle format
What do you do when your father of a certain age asks for help getting his novel loaded onto Amazon Kindle? Well, my Dad is youthful for his age – he leaps up the spiral staircase like a gazelle, leaving me panting like a wounded warthog. However, let’s face it, he would be referred to in polite circles as a “Silver Surfer” (sorry Dad).
The idea of spending hours at a computer, with Dad tearing out what remains of his hair, and muttering many “Hell’s teeth and claws” (a fantastic curse picked up from his wife) was unthinkable.
Only joking – we live a long way apart, so the idea of an idiot’s guide came about. This worked perfectly with only the odd bit of email support, and Dad had his book, The Talisman of Ictis, published very quickly.
Whatever your age, if you’d like some help getting your document formatted as a Kindle book and uploaded to Amazon, then here it is. I can’t promise there won’t be any “Hell’s teeth and claws” on the way, but you should be able to get your book published. Sales and Marketing? Well, that’s up to you!
idiotsguidetoconvertingworddocumenttokindleebookformat.pdf
Filed under: Writing Tagged: free, indie author, indie writing, Kindle, publishing, sci-fi, self publishing, tips and tricks, writing
May 31, 2013
Reminder – Short Story give away!
Don’t forget! You can grab my short story The Room for free on Amazon this weekend. The two days start 12a.m. Pacific Standard Time from the 1st to the 2nd June 2013. That should be about 08:00 here in the UK!
Watch out for it this weekend, and I hope you enjoy it.
Filed under: Writing Tagged: fiction, free, giveaway, indie author, indie writing, Kindle, publishing, sci-fi, science fiction, Short Story, writing
May 27, 2013
Early June Short Story Give Away
I wondered if you book-worms know a little about how things work for the indie authors using Amazon to publish?
Well, to start with we have set royalty rates, depending on the price of the book. So, my short stories costing £0.77 will give me 35% rate, and my full-length book, Chronovisor, costing £2.51 will be 70%. Here’s the problem; I’d love to give short stories away for free all the time, and maybe you’d buy my book after enjoying them. Under Amazon rules, the minimum price is 99 cents. What am I on about giving away freebies; I just sold my first short story before advertising it!
There is away to give Amazon eBooks away for free! We have the chance to join Amazon Prime, and give any book away for free for up to five days in ninety. With that in mind, you can grab The Room for nothing on two days starting 12a.m. Pacific Standard Time from the 1st to the 2nd June 2013. Hey, I don’t really know when that starts either! Just watch out for it this weekend, and I hope you enjoy it.
Filed under: Writing Tagged: free, indie author, indie writing, Kindle, sci-fi, science fiction, self publishing, Short Story, writing
May 26, 2013
'Talisman of Ictis' is go!
At last, my first book in the After the Fall series re-titled Talisman of Ictis, is available on Kindle.
I think it looks good, but I'd love to know what you all think?
The series will be out of print now I have taken it back from iUniverse and only available on Kindle. (at a sensible low price!)
The second book 'Sword' is ready and will be out in about six months.
A bit of Science Fantasy anybody?
May 20, 2013
My hoovering robot changed my life!
Seriously; this is no exaggeration. The newly-purchased XR Advanced Vacuum Cleaning Robot by Thinkgizmos.com has already allowed me the spare time to sit here and blog about how amazing the XR Advanced Vacuum Cleaning Robot is.
Whilst it picks up the blasted white dogs hairs from my beloved pets, which litter the laminate and rugs like clippings at a hairdressers, I’m now about to do some writing. Yes, really. Not blogging, not competitions, not short stories, but my current book. Perhaps, I’ll design my next book cover instead? Who knows. The possibilities are endless….until bedtime at least!
I’m signing off now, but you should look here to see what you’re missing.
Filed under: Life Tagged: Hoover, Hoovering Robot, housework, indie author, indie writing, life, life changing, Robot, Think Gizmos, Time saving, Vacuum cleaner
May 14, 2013
The Winchester Writers’ Conference 2013 Competitions – it’s still not too late!
I’m feeling very guilty! I was having so much fun with my entries for The Winchester Writers’ Conference 2013 Competitions, that I forgot to remind you all to enter. Maybe I need to increase my chances of winning, and don’t want the competition? To assuage my guilt, I thought I’d better do a blog.
This year, you can send your entries by email, so there’s plenty of time until the deadline – Friday 24th May. You do have to pay for entries, and there’s the usual small print, but it’s well worth it. Remember, one rule is that your entries can’t be published already.
Last year, I received a commendation for entering Chronovisor in the ‘Three pages of a novel’ competition. The funny thing was, the adjudicators forgot to announce the commendations on the Saturday, and I was sent an email apology a week later. I danced around the house when the certificate arrived in the post.
Here’s what they said about my entry;
“You have written an excellent prologue with a great cliff-hanger final line. This enables you – just! – to get away with all the exposition on the following pages. The synopsis is at times confusing but the idea is a fascinating one and reminds us of a John Wyndham short story. If you can make your characters as intriguing as your plot line, this would be very successful.”
I was (am still am) over the moon. Good luck with your entries, and I welcome the competition. Honest!
Filed under: Writing Tagged: Chronovisor, competition, fiction, indie author, indie writing, publishing, sci-fi, science fiction, self publishing, Winchester Writers Conference, writing
May 12, 2013
In which I stop being precious and start publishing.
So, this is not my first rodeo. Room 702 marks the seventh book I've published. And yet...I was very hesitant to let this one go. So much so that I still am being weirdly protective and haven't let my greater community of friends (aka facebook) know of its arrival into the world.
I think I'm hesitant because after all this time, I'm scared.
Even experienced authors are nervous on launch day. I liked the idea for Room 702
